Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission is pushing the federal government to take another look at disaster preparations for events such as Sandy.

According to prepared remarks to be delivered Tuesday to the Silicon Flatirons Center in Boulder, Colo., Rosenworcel planned to say that the government needs to take another look at requiring backup power for wireless communications and broadcast operations to help prepare for disasters.

Rosenworcel also plans to call for the government to examine how it allocates critical resources, such as fuel. In the prepared text of her speech before the influential University of Colorado Law School technology think tank, Rosenworcel said the government needs to undertake a “comprehensive discussion that includes questions about access to fuel, priority under the Stafford Act, backup communications deployments, maintaining backhaul and harmonization with state and local authorities.”

The FCC attempted to impose backup power requirements for cellphone facilities after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but the Office of Management and Budget rejected them.

“Storm events like this can take the most connected among us and turn us into wireless teetotalers,” Rosenworcel said in her prepared remarks. “Even last week, we had hordes of New York residents roaming the streets looking for places to plug in and charge. So we need also to talk about consumers preparing for the next event with longer-lasting backup batteries, solar chargers and more.”

One in four cell tower sites went down in storm-ravaged areas, according to the FCC. Many were replaced with temporary facilities, but the lack of fuel for generators has become more than just a nagging problem for telecommunications companies.

“We need to make progress before the next storm hits, the next disaster devastates and next network-related outage leaves us vulnerable again,” Rosenworcel said in her prepared remarks.